Blanket

ABSTRACT

A blanket formed from a woven or knitted textile material. The textile material is an elongated tubular shell and a filler. The filler is a synthetic microfiber or a mixture of synthetic microfiber and natural microfiber.

The invention relates to the light industry area, namely to material for production of the woven and knitted textiles, and can be used for the manual production of the carpets, runners, coverlets, blankets and other similar decorative objects.

Long since the textiles have been used by man to conform to the utilitarian and aesthetic needs. Among them, the carpets take the noticeable place.

Special attraction assume the textile carpet articles and other similar products having artistic and decorative home function and made by hand.

The decorative properties of the named textiles are conditioned by raw composition of the material from which they are made, their production process and mode of use. The consumer properties of the named products must meet to three groups of requirements: utilitarian, aesthetic and reliability.

To the first group of requirements relate lightness, softness, strength, elasticity, capability to washing and cleaning etc. At the second group of requirements the importance is attached to the aesthetic properties, namely to artistic and coloristic styling (this is the form, brightness, etc.), conformity of the product to fashion and exclusivity.

To the third group, namely to the reliability properties, relate safety, longevity, detergent resistance and lack of allergens.

The determining factor in formation of the products' in question consumer properties are the raw material components and the material form as a whole.

For a long time the main types of material for the textiles manufacture was the common and semi-common, the goat and camel guard wool. These materials are characterized by the elasticity and warmth, but their disadvantage consists in significant ability to pill.

Actually, the chemical synthetic artificial fibers and related materials on their basis are of the wide spread occurrence. Such materials have several advantages allowing to lend variety to the range of products made on their basis.

Today one of the known materials for the textiles manufacture is the combined thread consisting of two components, one of which is a highly elastic polyurethane core or filler, and the second is the component wrapping the first one in the form of the yarn (GB Patent 1051081, cl.D02G 3/36, 1966).

But the polyurethane fiber is wrapped with yarn completely, at that the twisting can be irregular causing the difficulties in the further processing and the finished products quality deterioration.

Another well-known material for the manufacture of textiles is a fiber composed of two components, one of which is highly elastic polyurethane core, and the second is the wrapping component in the form of the fiber made of the natural or synthetic fibers or their mixture with the linear density equal to 5.9-50.0 tex. with the twist factor of 28.5-50.7. The core or the filler has a linear density below of the nominal one in 1.5-4.0 times, thus improving the combined fiber quality with the expanding range of products that meet to the fashion trends (RU 2113565).

But considering the factor that the fiber is the material with a small diameter (0.1-0.8 mm), it is very difficult to create a wide range of products with the bright decorative properties.

For instance, widely is known the material for knitting the products with one's own hands, which constitutes a polyester cords with the core (filler) and diameter of 5 mm.

Using the polyester cords one can knit the spectacular and unique handworks-blankets, coverlets, plaids, bags, scarves and many others. The advantage of this material is that it is hypoallergenic, relatively soft, beautiful and durable, holds good form, is easy washing at the 30° C. temperature.

The products made of this material, such as blankets, are beautiful and original. (“Valtex” Company, UA).

But the disadvantage of this material is its small diameter, which creates some difficulties when working with it, for example, when knitting or weaving the blankets. In addition, this process is very laborious and time consuming.

The cord manufacturing technology is sufficiently complex, in process of manufacture its texture defects often occur affecting the further quality of the product.

The applied invention object consists in enhancement of the material for woven and knitted textiles by optimal combination of the material composition and texture (form), resulting in achievement of its consumer properties improvement, namely, acquiring softness, lightness, strength and elasticity, and combined with the aesthetic and decorative properties. In addition, there is a diversification of products made from the applied material.

According to the invention, the set object is solved by the fact that the material for production of the woven and knitted textiles is composed of a tubular seamless knitted shell filled with reinforcing filler, made of synthetic microfiber or a mixture of synthetic and natural microfibers with a density of 0.010-0.030 g/cm3, and the shell is made of the cotton or wool with addition of synthetic fiber, at that the material diameter is less than 8 cm, and the ratio of the shell, and the filler composition is defined by the material functionality.

The authors of this invention have demonstrated that the cumulative evidence of the above applied material is primarily due to its texture and the raw material quality for its making, and determines the achievement of the applied technical result.

The choice of the texture or form of material for the textiles weaving or knitting meets to technology allowing to obtain the products that are characterized by the following properties, namely the softness, lightness, strength, elasticity, combined with aesthetic and decorative aspect.

The shell is made as a seamless tubular knitting structure. Making the knitted fabric shell, unlike the woven or non-woven fabric, allows to obtain it seamless as it is knitted circle-wise instead of the previously stitched woven fabric.

The seamless shell has the obvious advantage because it provides a uniform surface which positively affects the aspect of the product.

The shell is made of the cotton or wool with the addition of synthetic fiber, this composition ensures the necessary strength, flexibility, elasticity and, that is very significant, holds its form and ability to return it after deformation.

The shell's wool tends to compensate in the material texture a stress, which occurs in process of the product weaving and knitting by hand.

As for the filler placed in the shell, it is purposed to fashion in desired form the material from which directly depend the consumer properties of the woven or knitted product.

The most suitable for the filler shell is the microfiber-synthetic or mixed with the natural microfiber that, to the full extend, meets to the qualities that are needed for manufacturing the product of the applied material. The vital importance has a filler density since just on the density depends the material property to recover its original form. The inventors determined the filler density real limits of 0.010-0.030 g/cm², outside of the specified density the consumer characteristics tend to reduction.

Combining the shell and reinforcing filler, as described above, ensures the material with manageability, flexibility, elasticity, and so on. This, in turn, contributes to the use of the applied material for a number of new techniques of the products weaving and knitting.

According to the authors, the diameter of the applied material shall not exceed 8 cm. This statement is based on the fact that at the higher value of the specified diameter there may be defects in the material form, such, for example, as the folds and others. The choice of the material diameter and of the shell and filler composition depends on the product that is made. For example, the carpet is better to produce at a ratio of these parameters that meet both to consumer characteristics and to specifics of the technological methods of its production. Moreover, the decorative characteristics are not of the least importance.

Such consumer properties of the applied material as softness and lightness of the hand woven or knitted products are achieved through the optimal combination of its design features and composition both of the shell and the filler.

For comparison, we shall cite the following data concerning the weight of 1 sq m of the products made of different materials:

a product made of the applied material 1,750 g a product made of the sheep's wool 2,250 g a common synthetic carpet 6,000 g

As to the strength of the obtained products, they have been tested for occurrence of the tightening from the animal claws, for presence of the product carved fragments. The products made of the applied material showed the high resistance to such kind of influence in contrast, for example, to the products made of the sheep's wool.

High indexes of strength of the products obtained from the applied material, are confirmed with resistance to mechanical effect, namely to friction, the pulls and the pellets occurrence.

Tests of the products made from the applied material for elasticity, that is for ability to change the form and size under the load effect and to return to its original state consisted in application of the loads of different intensity and for different time intervals, for example, on the blanket. According to the tests results the product has recovered its original configuration immediately after the load effect termination.

The invention is explained with the drawings and examples of specific performance.

FIG. 1 General view of the material for production of the woven and knitted products.

List of designations

-   -   1—a shell     -   2—a filler

FIG. 2 General view of the material for production of the woven and knitted products (photo).

FIG. 3 The product—a coverlet made of the applied material (photo).

FIG. 4 The product—a blanket made of the applied material (photo).

EXAMPLE 1

The material for production of the woven and knitted products was been developed of two components (see FIG. 1, 2 ): a shell (1) and a filler (2). The shell was manufactured at the own production capacities using the circle-wise knitting with two fibers—the cotton and polyamide-elastane one using the technique for obtaining the knitted fabric. The filler—a siliconized holofiber—was stripped of the desired width, for example, 5 cm, and the filler density is of 0.015 g/cm³.

From the received material using the hand knitting technique a coverlet was made (FIG. 3 ) which main advantage consists in its lightness, elasticity, softness and strength. Also the product is characterized by its aesthetic aspect and ornamentality. The product is easy to wash and is hypoallergenic.

EXAMPLE 2

Material for production of the woven and knitted textiles was been developed of two components (see FIG. 1, 2 ): a shell (1) and a filler (2). The shell was manufactured at the own production capacities using the circle-wise knitting with two fibers—the woolen and polyester fibers with technique for obtaining the knitted fabric. The filler—a Sherstepon (a mixture of the natural and synthetic microfibers) was stripped of the desired width, 7 cm, the filler density is of 0.025 g/cm³. From the received material using the hand knitting technique was made a blanket (FIG. 4 ), which main advantage consists in its lightness, elasticity, softness and strength. Also the product is characterized by its aesthetic appearance and ornamentality. The product is easy to clean and is hypoallergenic. Thus, the applied material has the advantages in comparison with the actually known materials of similar use, namely it has a complex of the textiles' consumer properties made of it using the vowing or hand knitting, specifically: lightness, elasticity, softness and strength. The specified complex of properties harmonizes with the aesthetic and decorative aspect of the made products. 

1-6. (canceled)
 7. A blanket formed from a woven or knitted textile material, the textile material comprising an elongated tubular shell and a filler.
 8. The blanket of claim 7, wherein the filler is synthetic microfiber or a mixture of synthetic microfiber and natural microfiber.
 9. The blanket of claim 7, wherein the elongated tubular shell is seamless.
 10. The blanket of claim 8, wherein the filler is synthetic microfiber.
 11. The blanket of claim 8, wherein the filler has a density of about 0.010 grams per cubic meter (0.624 pounds per cubic foot) to about 0.030 grams per cubic meter (1.87 pounds per cubic foot).
 12. The blanket of claim 7, wherein the elongated tubular shell is a knitted fabric. 